Virtually all of the presently available randomly dumped tower packings are afflicted with a number of deficiencies. Probably the most serious of these deficiencies is that when the packings are randomly dumped, large variations in bed characteristics will result. Generally speaking, these variations in bed characteristics are not only related to the way in which the bed was prepared, but also appear to be time-related. This is usually caused by settling of the tower packing elements in the tower, as well as subsequent internal shifting of the packing pieces in relation to each other. These normally uncontrollable happenings cause instabilities which affect gas and particularly liquid distributions inside of the packed bed adversely. Thus, the efficiency level and operational stability of the presently available packings when used in packed beds is very uncertain.
It has now been found completely unexpectedly and surprisingly that with packing elements that embody certain individual random construction features, the internal liquid distribution improves dramatically, with the result that the aforementioned uncertainties in efficiency and operational stability are largely overcome.
Having recognized this situation, the present new packing elements comprise, in their geometry, typical elements that enhance the state of randomness of the packed bed, and thereby achieve the result of minimizing the operational instabilities spoken of above.